‘Serious intellectual & mental problems’: Another USC prof caught on video slamming Bush, berating conservatives

A second professor at the University of Southern California (USC) has been caught on video using his political science class as a platform for bashing conservatives.

In the video, Political Science Professor Richard Dekmejian claims former President George W. Bush suffered from mental instability and stupidity during his time in office.

Bush was bound by “serious intellectual and mental problems,” he said before going on to claim Bush must have been “stupid or lying” to initiate Operation Iraqi Freedom for the reason of promoting democracy.

Dekmejian also alleges Bush dodged the draft when he was a young man because he was busy “getting drunk and high” and was “lazy for the first several months when he came into the presidency until 9/11.”

In the 20-minute secret recording, captured by student Tyler Talgo, during the Fall 2012 semester, Dekmejian also leveled a number of derogatory comments against members of the Bush administration, alleging both Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice “lied” to the American people during their service.

“You have to use that term [lying] people,” he reflected. “Don’t use that term mislead.”

In his class, Dekmejian additionally appeared to accuse some Christians of salivating over violence in the Middle East.

WATCH: USC professor delivers attacks on President Bush, other Republicans

“The right wing evangelical community... these are the people who get happy on television every time there is a conflict in the Middle East,” he said. “They think that the book of revelation tells them that the messiah...the Christian messiah, Jesus is going to come...all we need is a war in the Middle East involving Israel and the Arabs.”

Dekmejian did, however, praise former President Jimmy Carter (D) for his service during and after his presidency.

“He’s still going around doing good things by the way, Carter,” he said. “That Carter, very respectable.”

Last month, USC was hurled into the national headlines after a video recording showed another political science professor verbally assaulting Republicans.

Elizabeth Garrett, provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs at USC, told Campus Reform on Tuesday in a written statement that “faculty members are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects.”

“The freedom to take unpopular positions and the freedom to express those positions publicly are at the foundation of what it means to be a faculty member of a university,” she added. “One of the most important principles of an academic community has been that academic inquiry and discussion be free from censorship or undue outside control.”

Garrett, however, noted USC’s student code of conduct “expressly prohibits” students from videotaping their professors in the classroom. She declined to say whether Talgo would be disciplined for releasing these videos to the public.

Follow the authors of this article on Twitter: @oliverdarcy, @josiahryan